Ten of us go off for a cooked breakfast at the beach cafe while we wait for the tide to come over the bar. Then back aboard splicing practice continues, eventually cracked by Sue P. She is deep into the rigging of ‘Satellite’.

By 12:00 smaller boats are moving and at 13:00 ‘Lone Wolf’ heads off. Then its our turn to spring out against the wind blowing us back in. The tide is also not helping, but we get around the raft in front and complete the turn into the procession now heading out. Once out it’s slow downwind progress back across the Solent. Eventually the wind fills in, but veers around to the West meaning that we can no longer fetch up to Hamble. We put the engine on and in flat water are able to get almost completely packed up before we reach the boatyard. There our berth is clear, as promised, and we drop neatly back into it after exactly 2 months away. There’s just time to get the covers on and run over the bridge to get the train home, direct from Bursledon.

There should be plenty more sailing to come this year, but it’s all weekends from now on.